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The Commercial Appeal’s article "Teen births in Shelby County down by more than half since ‘07" notes the broader availability of contraceptives as significant to the reduction of unintended births.

This reduction is not limited to Shelby County, or even Tennessee. The United States is seeing its lowest rate of unintended pregnancy in 30 years, and a historic low of pregnancy among teens because of expanded access to birth control and sex education.

As the nation’s leading women’s health care provider and advocate, Planned Parenthood is an expert on birth control and proud to provide the full range of contraceptive options along with information and education to help people make informed decisions about which birth control method is best for them, as well as age-appropriate comprehensive sexual health education.

Federal Title X family planning funding and the Affordable Care Act both play a large role in increased access to contraception. Four million low-income people depend on the Title X family planning program, and any move to end the program endangers their access to affordable birth control and cancer screenings.

Likewise, the Affordable Care Act has given more than 62.4 million women access to fully covered women’s health services thanks to the ACA’s preventive health benefits, including birth control, routine well-woman exams, breast and cervical cancer screenings, and mammograms without co-pays or other out-of-pocket expenses.

But under the Trump administration, we’ve seen a full-on assault on women’s health and rights, and Planned Parenthood, Title X, and the ACA have all come under repeated attack.

The administration has appointed a host of anti-birth control and anti-abortion political appointees. The administration has rolled back the requirement that employers must cover birth control with no cost sharing by allowing broad exemptions for religious or moral reasons.

They denied an undocumented immigrant teen held in its custody access to an abortion. And they aim to eliminate programs that help low-income women access birth control, further eliminate no-copay insurance coverage for birth control, and prohibit health care providers from giving women information about birth control and abortion.

Those hurt the most would be people struggling to get by and those who already face barriers to accessing health care -- especially people of color, people with low to moderate incomes, and people who live in rural areas.

Birth control is basic health care. It’s a normal part of women’s lives and should not be up for debate. Politicians should stop trying to restrict women’s access to birth control.

Congress and the administration should listen to the American people and stop attacking access to basic reproductive health care -- including birth control. People want to see policymakers working to improve health care access, not take it away.

We want our community’s needs to be met and the progress we’ve made to improve health outcomes continue. We will keep fighting for all those who don’t have birth control coverage or health insurance to ensure they have access this basic health care.